And some guy who cut his Cold Stone teeth at Oneonta is leading CSC on the charge.

“It’s fun to be known as the ice cream guy,” Cold Stone’s Ray Karam “senior tastemaster” said from the Arizona headquarters of Cold Stone, known as a high end, though intensely delicious, disperser of desserts and such.

In case you’ve been dozing as you’re carting past your favorite supermarket’s dairy cases, yogurt is as hot as a cold dairy product can be. And as The P-S has told you, much of the of-the-moment popular yogurt products are made in New York state.

So leave it to the dessert folks to return to the TCBY-ish crazes of yesteryear and offer alt snacks.

Cold Stone, with help from Karam, has jumped in with limited-time offers of low-fat, low-calorie concoctions. Vanilla, chocolate and raspberry yogurt flavors are on the menu. And, well, the “low-calorie” part depends on how you decide to mix things in. That’s how Cold Stone rolls.

“We’ve had yogurt for the past year,” said Karam, who graduated from SUNY Oneonta before heading to Scottsdale and eventually joining Cold Stone. “We started the new venture of soft-serve yogurt and since than have grown with that.”

Karam said the current growing popularity of yogurt and yogurt products likely isn’t a fad, much as frogurt — frozen yogurt — was in the ‘90s, growing chains of snack stands and products.

“We believe this time, yogurt is here to stay,” said Karam.

From his perspective, Karam said the up sides of yogurt are too good to pass up.

“As I look at some of the nutritional information, I see we’re in the low-fat range with some of these creations,” said Karam. “However, there’s the extra benefit of calcium and protein as well. Yogurt has somewhere between 15 percent and 30 percent of the daily requirements for calcium.”

Express checkout

Here at Store Front, we spin yarns. At The Yarn Cupboard in Jamesville, they also spin yarns. The twain has met. So we’re here to tell you about something The Yarn Cupboard is giving a shout-out about. It’s the 2nd Annual Winter Fiber Arts Retreat and Market. It’s Friday through next Sunday at Christ the King Retreat and Conference Center in Syracuse. The event features workshops from some of the top handmade crafters around. Check The Yarn Cupboard’s website for more information.

New to downtown Syracuse: Soup R Salads — pronounced “super-salad” — at 308 S. Warren St. This comes from owner Cheryl Hassett, and our prediction downtown Syracuse is on a huge comeback stays in place.

The new Tim Hortons at Moyers Corners gets a neighbor: Cam’s Pizzeria.